Apples bob back

The vampire and cowboy now pulled a large tub of water into the centre of the room. Apples floated on the surface. Again, Steven had little idea what this represented. Bath time for fruit?
The cowboy asked the spacesuited boy to join him, but Steven leaped to his feet and barred the boy’s path. ‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘I think I’d better try this one out first. Just in case there’s anything nasty on offer.’ He marched up to the tub and looked down at the apples. ‘So … what am I supposed to do exactly?’
‘It’s apple-bobbing,’ said the young astronaut. ‘You have to pick up an apple using only your teeth.’
‘What is it about all these games and only using your teeth?’ muttered Steven. He leaned over the tub – and two pairs of arms grabbed him. Steven, caught by surprise and off balance, was unable to prevent the vampire and cowboy from tying his wrists together.
‘Just to make sure you don’t cheat,’ said the cowboy. His mask was fixed in a permanent grin, and Steven was sure the same smug expression was spread across the real face beneath.
‘I’m not a cheater,’ Steven growled through gritted teeth. He knelt down, baring his teeth, and set his sights on an apple.
The apple also bared its teeth.
Steven yelled as a dozen pieces of fruit clamped their jaws on to his nose, his ears, his cheeks. Somehow, they were dragging him down, into the water. An apple wedged itself in his still-open mouth; he tried to breathe but his head was underwater now.
But space pilots need cool heads, and Steven was not one to give in to panic. He stopped thrashing about, relaxed, and as he was drawn deeper into the tub he raised a knee on to its rim and pressed down hard. It wasn’t an easy or elegant move, but it succeeded. Steven ended up on his back, very wet, with the upturned tub on top of him, but he could breathe again. A spreading pool carried the fanged apples across the room, and as Steven pushed himself up on to his knees he was delighted to see that some were already nipping at the toes and ankles of the vampire and the cowboy.

***

Murder in the Dark, Tales of Terror